The state government of Andhra Pradesh is embarked upon a plan to launch a string of generic pharmacy stores in most districts of the state. The state government has already launched a generic pharmacy in the district of Vishakhapatnam under the aegis of the district collector and a group of experts related to the pharmaceutical sector, it is learnt.

Impressed by the model of the recently launched Jeevan Dhara Sanjeevani pharmacy, Vishakhapatnam, run under Jilla Samakhya, a women’s self help group promoted by the District Rural Development Organisation (DRDO), the chief minister K Rosaiah expressed the government’s interest to commence a similar initiative all over the state. The government has also asked the group of experts, led by J Shyamala Rao, district collector, who designed the project for the district to submit a detailed report on the model, according to a member of the group.

“The government has called for a report on the model of generic store we have started here. The chief minister himself appreciated our efforts and said that he is interested in expanding the project to the rest of the state. We are currently working on the project note and would submit it to the government in a week,” said Ravi Udaybhaskar, head of the formulary committee executing the generic pharmacies and assistant director, Vishakhapatnam, state drug control administration.

The first of the Sanjeevani Pharmacy was set up in King George Hospital, a major government hospital in the district, on January 24, 2010 offering 210 essential drugs and surgicals from 20 reputed pharma manufacturers at minimum possible cost. Soon another four low cost pharmacy stores existing under the self help group has been rechristened under the name Jeevan Dhara Sanjeevani Pharmacy and were brought in under the model.

The generic drugs were purchased from the top 20 pharma companies at dealer price and the medicines are sold with 20 per cent profit, which is credited to the self help group. Within a month of the launch, the first shop reached the break even with Rs 1.5 lakh sales. The patients are attracted to the stores since the price is 50 to 90 per cent less than the MRP printed on the pack, said Udaybhaskar.

As reported earlier, the group has selected 236 generic drugs from the list of products prepared for the central government's Jan Aushadhi generic store scheme. Further, almost 70 to 80 drugs including the fourth generation cephalosporin, malarial drugs, IV sets, implants, anti cancer and antiretroviral drugs would be added to the list for the Sanjeevani scheme.

Apart from the district collector and the drug regulatory official, Dr P V Appaji, executive director, Pharmexcil, Srinivas Lanka, former director, Aurobindo Pharma, Dr Somayajulu, superintendent, KGH, one professor of pharmacology from KGH, an industry expert, one doctor and the procurement head from the Sanjeevani Scheme are the other experts in the formulary committee.